If one shot is
good, two must be better. Got it last week!
Most of the folks
on our street have their second shot; not much millennialism on Dearne Way. Our
Saturday morning coffee klatch might be unmasked in a couple of weeks. We meet
in the driveway so that everyone can sit six feet apart. It’s been a long year.
Getting the first
shot gives you a good feeling, the beginning of the end, maybe. Things don’t
seem to be as bad as they once did. The second shot comes with a dash of
euphoria, a small one mind you, but it’s there. With two shots, you can go to
the grocery store without fear. With two shots, you can go to the local barista
and sit around while you talk and drink. With two shots you can forget to be
careful, not a good thing.
Some people may wonder
about all the fuss. I’ve read articles about people who haven’t been following
the CDC guidelines too much anyway. We see TV news reports of beach parties and
crowded bars and wonder why.
Some state
governors, many actually, lifted most covid-19 restrictions last week, even
while their states experienced the highest covid related death rates per
capita. Texas, Florida, Mississippi, and other high-death states are wide open
for business and people are burning their masks. Free at last?
There is some
good news at the national level, because we now have three very good vaccines
and are jabbing over two million people a day and getting better at it. Over 50%
of folks, over 65 are vaccinated and nearly 17% of the total population is
vaccinated. We are making good progress.
The CDC issued
new guidance for people who had their second shot and then waited two weeks
before mixing with others. Folks with their second shot can now meet in homes
with others who have had their shots, and with a family who isn’t fully
vaccinated. Grandparents can now visit their grandkids. We might have some
neighbors over for dinner one night.
While we are
making progress in the fight against the virus, too many people are still
contracting it, getting sick, or dying from it. So, outside the home, we should
still wear a mask and social distance. I don’t like it! I don’t want to wear a
mask all the time, but I’m convinced it is worth the trouble.
I suspect that
many of us on the left coast are prospects for easy convincing by government
leaders, so we hunkered down for the last year. Our news media convinces us
that we are a bit more righteous than heartland fellow compatriots are. Republican
governors in the mid-West garnered little positive publicity out here. They
opened too soon, they made the mask a political statement, and they flaunted
social distancing to get a drink and the beaches were major draws. We opened
too soon too and paid the price, but we don’t talk about it much.
How people of several states approached the pandemic says a lot about the state of the country.
We can stipulate that Americans are equally divided on almost any issue, except
that we all agree that we are divided on almost any issue. Part of the divide
is cultural, some of it is old vs. new thoughts about our creed and our soul.
Some of the divide is caused by confusion strewn at the top levels of
government and an apparent lack of appreciation for the civic duty of the
individual toward the rest of the people and the country. “This is America. I
don’t have to wear a mask if I don’t want to.” Yes, you do!
This is America.
We wear a mask to prevent hurting other people and getting hurt ourselves. We wear
a mask to help keep the ICU units open for those who need them. We stand apart so that we reduce the likelihood of spreading the virus. We take care of each
other and we support each other.
David Brooks
raised an interesting question in a recent column, “Maybe the problem is people have grown less passionate about
a shared American identity.”[i]
Are we less interested in who we are than what we are? Is it more important to
support a political party’s take on public health measures than the CDC’s or
the NIH’s? Is it more important to follow a political leader than the science
of how viruses spread and mutate? Are we experiencing a collision of ideas
about what makes America great or better? The pandemic will be over in a year
or so. Will our political temperatures be lowered a bit in a year or so?
It is possible, maybe even probable, that when
80%+ of the people are vaccinated, when the kids are back in school and when folks
are back at work in whatever shape that takes, perhaps the euphoria will spread
and we will start to come together again, to be one country rather than two or
three. Maybe when fear is dampened we will try to unite rather than divide.
In the meantime, I think it would be nice to
have dinner in a restaurant again. What is the next higher level after
euphoria?
